Music theory after the Ottoman empire
Chair: Alexander Knapp (SOAS, U. of London)
This panel concerns the social construction of music theory with respect to different musical traditions in the Mediterranean. Connected together by a shared Ottoman past, these music cultures reveal a common concern for the modernization of tradition by invoking a European precedent in theoretical discourse. In each paper, music theory provides a locus for exploring different readings of a new identity, employing scientific principles to express a distinctive concept of nationhood in the wake of imperial decline. In the first paper, John Plemmenos examines music reform among Greeks in the Ottoman Empire and shows how the new music theory of Chrysanthos of Madyta (in 1832) is informed by an alternative construction of gender identity. In the second paper, John O’Connell looks at music reform among Turks in the Turkish Republic and demonstrates how the new music theory of Rauf Yekta Bey (in 1922) is informed by a heterodox reading of national identity. In the third paper, Ruth Davis reflects upon music reform among Tunisians in the Maghreb and traces the influence of Shaykh ‘Ali al-Darwish (in 1931) in the reform of music theory following an Egyptian model in the Mashreq. In all the papers, the standardization and the westernization of music theory are emphasized, each new model being viewed in its appropriate cultural context. In each instance, the legacy of an Ottoman influence is either directly or indirectly apparent. Here, music theory reveals a complex engagement with western modernity in the Ottoman Empire since the eighteenth century.
John Plemmenos (Ionian U.)
Theorizing the Greek echoi at the end of the Ottoman period
This paper examines the conceptualization of the Ottoman makam (English ‘mode’) by Phanariot musicians and composers resident in Istanbul during the eighteenth century. In the first half of the century, the Phanariots produced two treatises comparing Ottoman makams with Greek echoi (English ‘ecclesiastical modes’); that is, with the eight echoi of the so-called Byzantine ecclesiastical tradition. In their attempt to apply Ottoman principles to the Greek echoi, the authors of these treatises - Panagiotes Chalatzoglou (Precentor of the Greek Ecumenical Patriarchate) and Kyrillos (Bishop of Marmara) – deviate in some ways from the traditional conception of the Ottoman makam. Moreover, the paper argues that Chalatzoglou’s treatise is an adaptation of Cantemir’s missing treatise on the same theme. On a more practical level, Phanariots applied the makam concept to their own compositions using Greek lyrics and Ottoman usûls (English ‘rhythmic cycles’). In these, they attempted to combine Ottoman makams with particular Greek dromoi (English ‘folk modes’). Petros of Peloponnese (Chorister of the Greek Patriarchate of Istanbul) is a case in point, a musician who produced 100 works of this sort. The paper also explores the rules governing the Phanariot adaptation of Ottoman makams, a development that underpins the emergence of the influential theory of Chrysanthos of Madyta (in 1832) and the subsequent use of makams in Greek popular music.
John M. O’Connell (Cardiff U.)
Theorizing the Turkish makam at the dawn of the Turkish republic
This paper concerns the ways in which music theory discloses different social positions. In particular, it concerns the operation of three distinctive theoretical systems in Turkey, each associated with a different cultural tradition but each operating in practice at different moments in the transmission of musical knowledge. First, a European system of music conceptualization is employed, a modified system of solfège accompanying the use of musical notation. Second, a Middle Eastern system of music conceptualization is utilized, a shared body of musical references drawing upon an ancient Greek precedent to make sense of microtonal intervals and modal shifts characteristic of the Turkish art tradition. Third, an Islamic system of musical conceptualization is invoked, metaphoric language heavily influenced by mystical thought revealed during the interpretative fringes of the didactic process. Here, musical discourse operates as a locus for experiencing distinctive readings of music history, music theories articulating seemingly contradictory worldviews. While the modernizing reforms of the early Republican era (1923–38) sought to transform music theory by adopting the musical principles of the western art tradition, today these reforms have served to preserve rather than eradicate older systems of musical conceptualization, musical links with the past that persist in the present precisely because they are believed to have ended. In this respect, the theoretical treatise of Rauf Yekta Bey (1922) is significant as it adapted western musical principles in the representation of Turkish art music. By packaging traditional practice in a modernist guise, he demonstrated the ways in his music theory was able to bypass official approbation, offering an alternative reading of national identity at the dawn of the Turkish Republic.
Ruth Davis (U. of Cambridge)
Theorizing the Tunisian nuba in the shadow of the Protectorate
Since independence in 1956, maqam theory, articulated in solfège and Western staff notation, has formed the cornerstone of state-sponsored music education in Tunisia. Numerous music publications, including the officially-sanctioned edition of the thirteen nubat (pillars of the Tunisian Arab art music repertory known as ma’luf), include tables of ascending and descending scales with named tetrachordal divisions, illustrating the various maqamat (English ‘melodic modes’) on which the repertory is purportedly based. Tunisian musicians attribute the origins of their contemporary maqam theory to the pioneering efforts of the Syrian Shaykh ‘Ali al-Darwish, who was sent to Tunisia in 1931 by the Egyptian government to assist the Baron Rodolphe d’Erlanger in his study of the Arab maqamat in current usage for the 1932 Cairo Congress. On his visits to Tunis in 1931 and 1938, the Shaykh gave public classes, subsidised by the government, in which he introduced Tunisian musicians to the maqamat of both Egyptian and Tunisian music, adopting theoretical models imported from Egypt. The Shaykh’s representations provided the basis for subsequent refinement by Tunisian musicians. However, notations of the nubat by leading musicians since the 1930s, including the notations published by the government, and recordings by leading ensembles, reveal melodic characteristics that deviate significantly from the scalar representations of the maqamat. Occasionally, musicians draw attention to such discrepancies in the liner notes accompanying their recordings.
In this paper I consider various strategies adopted by Tunisian musicians in addressing the perceived discrepancies between standard maqam theory and melodic practice, in theoretical discourse, teaching and performance. In so doing, I argue that ultimately, the symbolic role played by maqam theory as a modernising agent in the canonisation and institutionalisation of the ma’luf since the 1930s, overrides purely music analytical considerations.